The Ashley Smith inquest has been dominated by guards from the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener where she died in 2007, but that shifts this week with the arrival of her mother Coralee.

Despite the countless news stories generated by the teenager’s death and treatment in the correctional system, her mother has kept a relatively low profile throughout.

From all indications Coralee and Ashley had a loving, yet complicated relationship, one that jurors in the Toronto inquest have heard occasional references to.

For instance, Blaine Phibbs, a correctional officer who developed somewhat of a rapport with 19-year-old before she died, told the inquest how Ashley once tearfully confided to him questions she had about who her real mother was.

Adopted at just 5 days old, Ashley told Phibbs she was disturbed by stories she’d been told that her older sister was actually her biological mother, not Coralee.

Nobody would confirm the story, but Ashley’s sister had kept a son — Ashley’s nephew — so why not her, Smith wondered.

Coralee’s older daughter was from a previous relationship, according to a psychological assessment done of Ashley when she was 15. The report has been entered as evidence in the inquest.

Ashley was adopted by Coralee and her then-husband Harold Smith in New Brunswick. Coralee and Harold separated when Ashley was 2. Coralee later decided to live with Herbert Gorber and took Ashley with her.

According to the assessment, Ashley was promised — presumably by her mom — that she would be given information about her adoptive father and biological parents when she was “much older.”

The report, written while Ashley was at a secure youth treatment facility in Moncton, notes that Coralee described Ashley as a “healthy easy going child” who reached developmental milestones at the proper times.

Ashley never liked going to daycare and was always “anxious” for Coralee to get her at the end of the day, the report notes.

But the inquest documents also paint a picture of a mother caring for Ashley as a restless teenager in Grade 9. Something about Ashley had changed around the time she turned 12.

Coralee was Ashley’s main disciplinarian at home, where there was the typical teenage conflict around assigned chores and curfews, another report from the treatment centre noted at the time.

By age 15, Ashley was acting out in school and getting into trouble with authorities for theft and harassing people.

During this time Coralee said she felt bad Ashley had little to do, so she allowed her daughter to spend increasing amounts of time on the computer at home. Ashley’s computer habits ranged from garden variety websites and chat rooms, to downloaded and printed material on porn and bomb-making, the documents show.

Another assessment from the youth treatment centre recommended that Ashley’s time on the internet be supervised or denied by her parents, and that she be encouraged to find other activities to keep busy.

While at the treatment centre Ashley had violent run-ins with staff as well as those in detention.

Reports from the centre concluded she had personality and behavioural issues requiring individual and family therapy. A doctor recommended the antidepressant Zoloft for Ashley, to “give her some control over impulsivity and irritability.”

Coralee told the physician she would need more information before agreeing to have the medication prescribed for her daughter.

Ashley’s parents later fought unsuccessfully against a July 29, 2006 application by the superintendent of the New Brunswick Youth Centre to have her transferred to federal custody while she was still a youth.

The following May 2007, Ashley was a new inmate at the Grand Valley jail in Kitchener, where she was kept in segregation.

The inquest has heard that she kept in contact with her mother, at one point getting crayons and paper in the jail to write happy birthday cards for her mom and dad.

In June 2007 she was sent to a psychiatric hospital in St. Thomas, Ont. for evaluation. On the way, Grand Valley guard Michelle Lombardo loaned her cellphone to Ashley to call Coralee.

“She (Ashley) wasn’t agitated. She said: ‘I’ll be OK. I love you mom,’” Lombardo told the inquest last week.

Smith died at the facility Oct. 19, 2007, asphyxiating herself with a ligature tied around her neck inside her solitary confinement cell.

According to a report last year published in P.E.I.’s the Journal Pioneer, Coralee told a fundraiser in Moncton that “Ashley did not wilfully commit suicide.

“Ashley’s biggest wish was to get home to her room, get in the Jacuzzi tub and to hold her dog,” the newspaper quoted Coralee as saying.

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